Aleksei Oktyabrinovich Balabanov was a Russian film director, screenwriter, and producer, a member of European Film Academy. He started from creating mostly arthouse pictures and music videos but gained significant mainstream popularity in action crime drama movies Brother and Brother 2, both of which starred Sergei Bodrov, Jr. Later, Balabanov directed the films Cargo 200, Morphine and A Stoker which also received critical recognition.